Bottles and similar containers often must undergo a cleaning of some sort prior to their actual use. Particularly does this represent the situation where these items will hold some material consumable by animals, especially humans. In such cases, the bottles will experience a multiplicity of cleaning stages. In one of the stages, an actual cleaning solution will contact the containers' interiors. This serves to provide assurance that undesirable substances will undergo removal from the bottles. Subsequently, the bottles will experience a rinsing stage. This removes the cleaning solution itself from the bottles.
One particularly effective manner of carrying out the cleaning and rinsing involves inverting the bottles during each of the stages. The machinery then sprays the appropriate liquid into the containers while upside-down.
Inverting the bottles produces a number of desirable effects. First, it sprays liquids with the minimum level of contaminating agents on the bottles' interiors. Second, it provides a continuous spray of fresh liquid to remove the contaminants. Third, it allows the force of the spray itself contacting the interior surface to assist in the contaminant removal.
However, passing the containers through two separate washing areas (one of which may simply rinse the bottles) poses its own set or problems. One cause for concern involves the extensive floor area for two separate cleaning machines. Another requires a facile transfer between the two pieces of equipment.
Some prior efforts have inverted the bottles and then sent them through a plurality of wash stations before releasing them. U.S. Pat. No. 3,129,713 to P. C. Read, U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,774 to O. H. Fischer and U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,624 to A. Wahl et al. invert, submerge, and spray bottles to clean them. The bottles sit in pockets during the process. The submersion and pockets may leave cleaning solution on the bottles' exteriors after cleaning. Improved multi-pass cleaning equipment portends substantial advantages and savings to those filling and using containers.